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Autumn tunnel / Through an aquarium

 

In a scented freckled room

Orchestral tea services

Brew the music of the spheres

Lakes of milk and candlewood

Is it you I hear smiling

Is it the folds in your dresses

Something unknown is afoot

Something unknown to the skin

 

The sound puddles palpitate

Beneath gleaming blankets

I dream of you, in the dark

November calling out

Jolt your waltzes up my veins

While I scrub away the stains

While I scrub it till it stings

Till it’s sweet around the rim

 

Come, take a stroll

Through the reds and yellows

Through quivers and shadows

Through the streets as they moan

 

Bodies of wood and clay

Stumble down the strings

Their echoes wave in strands

See you soon, you said

I’ve lost the insight to tell

A shovel from a spade

It takes more than a net

To gather up the strays

 

The blue branches of the night

Are dripping clouds into the dawn

As the chorus carries out

The recently deceased

The icy lick of the sickle

Slick and smooth on my ankle

Makes all the love in the world

Seem like an empty promise

 

Come, take a look

At the desperate fool

At his exhausted rule

At his empty sketchbook

 

The gravel children congregate

In collective ecstasy

They flick marbles and mistake

Handshakes for free will

You shouldn’t be sorry

But how many looks will it take

Until the air that stagnates

Dissolves into certainty

 

At long last it is raining

So we can finally breathe

And it is almost over now

The sky is twirling aloud

The smoking moonbeams cluster

With all these obscene creatures

Parading splendid seizures

And you’re around every corner

 

Come, take a rest

From the faithful prophets

From the tidy thickets

From the pretend contest

 

A touch of fizzing in the air

Will you whisper me a verse

Brighten the lights in your stare

My heart beat itself to a pulp

A jackalope with silk antlers

And a light frosting in his fur

Told me to reach for my pulse

But he was just the messenger

 

The rivers welcome the leaves

The silver spirals make their rounds

I hear your name in the breeze

Who are you playing tonight

Notes plant themselves in the ground

Leaking all along the keys

And never need exterior light

Only the one up your sleeve

 

Come, take your place

With the humming springflakes

With the perfect mistakes

With the sweetest sickness

 

The faded withered crop

Rubs the dead dust off its eyes

Your silence burns clock-wise

Give me just one more dose

It is happening again

My defence is paper-thin

With the eyes closed

Unfaltering

 

The woods are dark and inviting

As the wind smears out the signs

I tried to follow the train tracks

Now I’m stranded and alone

I should have followed your voice

But you were speaking on the phone

I begin a new song as you pass

And hope that you can end my rhyme

 

Come, take my hand

Through the barbed wire glance

Through the fading distance

Through the laughing quicksand

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2021

©2025 Augustin Fontaine // Made with Wix©
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